What Is a Title Anymore?

There was a day and time when it was an honor to hold a championship belt in wrestling. When gaining a championship was a staple in one's career. Just for example, and the obvious one, Ric Flair held the world title 16 times, more than anyone in history.

However, something that concerns me is this record will not be around forever and it is a disgrace to the business. Not to take anything away from any competitor that is or will be close to these records. Most are pretty good workers, but changing titles in today's world of wrestling is more trendy than meaningful.

For example, when Flair won his first world title he held it for nearly two years. This is unheard by today's standards. A good title run in the WWE, or TNA for that matter, is six months. It is rare to see titles held more than that amount of time.

This is not just limited to the world title, other mid-card titles such as the Intercontinental Belt seems to change hands every other week at times. Since 2000, the IC belt has changed hands a mind boggling 62 times. If you compare this to the start of every other decade you have 45 in the '90s and 14 in the '80s. The IC belt has changed hands more times this decade than in the previous 20 years.

I believe the trend started toward the ending of WCW when you have the world belt literally changing every week between such competitors as Booker T, Jeff Jarrett and Scott Steiner.

It would be nice as a fan to see the titles mean something like they did years ago. Allow a champion to hold a belt more than a month. Have meaningful feuds longer than one pay-per-view to the next.

I would love to see especially the IC belt mean something. There was a time when the IC champion was considered to be the best wrestler in the company and I would love to see that kind of prestige brought back to the belt and the company.